Canada now has a female beer sommelier (yes, there are beer sommeliers)

You might react to the news that Canada has only one female beer sommelier with a question: there are beer sommeliers? Well, yes, there are. They’re called cicerones, and of the eight in Canada, Mirella Amato, who was profiled in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, has just become the first woman with the job. Amato, who received her certification after an online course—and a rigorous presentation in front of a testing panel—says she’s often met with confusion when she mentions her profession, a combination of bewilderment over a woman in a male-dominated field and the fact that the field exists in the first place. Mirella told the Globe that unlike wine, beer isn’t necessarily constrained by geography—instead, brewing’s a little more like tinkering with a really, really fun chemistry set. And in case you were wondering, no, her job isn’t just sitting around and drinking beer. She travels extensively, designs beer lists for restaurants and can even give you a chemistry lesson or two. For example, did you know that bright lights in stores can make lagers go skunky? Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »